Chapter Text
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You'd be surprised at how quickly the environment can change. Just four hundred miles to the west of the great city of Zootopia, and its many, many different environments and climates within the city limits, from humid rainforest to grueling and frigid tundra, sprawled an even more vast, hot, dry and arid desert that spanned for hundreds to thousands of miles. Out here the temperatures even put the hottest districts of the city to shame. If a mammal somehow went straight from this desert on its hottest day ever to the hottest part of Sahara Square it would still feel like they were standing in the middle of Tundra Town. Perhaps an exaggeration but the point being that the population of animals who lived out here were hardy or evolved to handle such intense temperatures and dry endless seas of sand and blinding sun. Those who chose to live here tended to be species evolved for it, but occasionally an animal not exactly the norm might call the desert home. Nonetheless all of the animals who lived around here, desert species or otherwise, usually did so in small tight-knit communities, the sort of places everyone knew everyone in.
And soaring high above the vast seemingly unending expanse of dry uninhabited desert, and its gangly dry trees and spiky ferns, already far from the only town located in the region for miles and miles, was a lone white patrol plane. The words, "Fox County Police" were printed on the side in large, bold black letters. The plane was white, and its nose vaguely was shaped like a fox's snout, hence the name of the model. The model was an FF0616-1954 patrol craft called the Flying Fox, though its pilot was actually a male jackal. His fur was a dusty color, a mix of light browns and light grays. The local police had gotten a strange, and alarming, report that warranted immediate investigation that morning. The pilot had been airborne even before the sun had risen above the horizon that morning. After patrolling like this for hours over nothing but empty desert and scattered dry patches of forest, following the route of a dusty trail that hardly counted as a road, it maybe was driven once a fortnight, he finally lifted a radio microphone to his snout and spoke into the mouthpiece, "301A to car 5W. Code 1."
His voice traveled down to the lone police patrol car driving on that dusty track of a road below him. Inside, a police Sergeant for the local town PD who sat in the passenger seat of the patrol cruiser alongside one of his troopers who was driving, grabbed the cruiser's radio microphone and spoke into, "5W to 301A, go ahead bud." Sargent Ben Pawson was an adult male brown bear, his fur a dark brown color. He was well built, very muscular, and level headed in the most serious of crises. He was everything a model cop should strive to be, and above all he cared for those officers under him and tried to do right by his local people. His uniform was black, the cap he wore was the same color. His boots were also the same color, around here boots were a mandatory part of the uniform for field going officers like him and his partner.
"I think we're chasing the wind, Ben," the jackal said over the radio. "Maybe that guy who sent in that wild report drank his breakfast." At the last comment from the pilot of the plane, Ben couldn't help but smirk a bit and a soft chuckle also escaped his lips. The trooper sitting next to him didn't outwardly react and instead kept his eyes on the road, but he was listening. He was younger than Ben and a different species, instead of a bear the younger trooper was a male lycaon. His police uniform, hat and boots were all the same color as his superior's. Like the bear and jackal he was also colored in a way that suited the desert well, with mostly brown colors on his fur, lighter than the other two, with black patches across his body, especially on his face. He kept his paws resting on the wheel as he waited to hear what the two decided to do next.
The jackal's voice came again after a moment, "We might as well call it-" he suddenly stopped. Even through the silent radio both officers in the car could sense his sudden alert tension. "Hey wait a minute," he came back after a moment. Both cops watched as the plane arched off the left side of the road with a whooshing noise and did a big flyover over an area nearby that was obscured from their view by dense tangled trees with pointy branches. The plane did a wide circle before looping around and passing over the spot again, beginning to circle lower to the ground. The pilot's voice suddenly came through the radio again, alert and focused now.
"It's a cub alright, looks to be an arctic wolf, maybe fifty yards off the road. I'll keep circling her until you pick her up. 10-10."
"10-10!" Pawson confirmed, hanging the microphone back on the dash and nodding to his partner. Ed Blackfur, the lycaon, nodded and pushed the gas pedal to speed up. Both were focused and alert now. The car jumped and shook slightly as it sped down the dirt road as they raced to come up parallel with where the plane was circling. From above, the jackal, whose name was Johnny, continued to do a low wide circling flight around the lone wolf pup. From above she'd been easy to spot once he'd finally seen her. The cub was so small, a lone tiny white dot amid the sea of sand and scraggly trees. She was walking slowly, almost parallel to the road by happy chance, but she never once seemed to notice or even look up at the plane circling her. Frowning, the jackal continued flying overhead and passing around her in wide circles. At least she was easy to see, even amid the patch of undergrowth and trees she was wandering through. After a few seconds, Johnny spotted the police cruiser pull up parallel to the cub and stop. The trees had thinned out enough that they could see her. He saw both officers get out and only then once he knew that they both had visual on her he finally peeled away to do a wider flyover of the area to see if he could spot anything, or anyone, else.
"Because what is a cub doing out here alone?" the jackal thought. "Way out here in the middle of nowhere? An arctic species of all things too."
Meanwhile, Ben Pawson and Ed Blackfur both piled out of their patrol car as they saw the wolf pup just off the road. Ed stopped the vehicle the moment they saw the pup, not even bothering to pull off the side of the road first. The pup was walking slowly forward but at a steady pace. She was holding a doll made to look like some cat species in one arm. Seeing this both officers assumed the wolf was a young girl. The arctic wolf pup also wore loosely fitting night clothes, the shirt, which went down to her knees, was a light purple color. Even from this distance, the bear could see the bright text on the back that read, in big green letters, "Zootopia!" and under that something about the Rainforest District in the city. As she walked, her fluffy tail dragged on the sand behind her, limp and still. Very unusual for a wolf. Her pure white fur was being turned a dusty brown color there as it left a small drag mark in the sand behind her. She wore no shoes, and instead walked with bare paws on the sand.
Ben lifted his paws to his large jaws and bellowed out in a deep voice that boomed over the quiet desert, "Hey! Hey honey! Hey little girl! Little girl!"
She didn't react at all, her ears didn't even twitch in response to the shout. Even more unusual, the ears of an animal with such good hearing like a wolf should have twitched in response to a sound like that even if it was just instinctually. Ben lowered his paws and gazed over at Ed for a moment in confused concern before they both looked back at the pup. Seeing that she wasn't slowing, she was just passing by like the two police officers weren't even there, Ben wasted no more time in running off the roads towards her, nearly losing his hat form the speed he charged forward at.
"Hey wait a minute!" he called in a gentle, friendly voice. He'd once been the Santa for the local children, and he used that big friendly jolly voice he had then again now. "What are you doing out here, honey?" he asked, a friendly smile on his face as he reached her and crouched in front of the young wolf, blocking her path. She stopped walking when he placed both paws firmly but gently on her shoulders, but it was like an automatic reflex over a conscious choice. Ben's warm smile faded to confused concern as she remained silent, wide eyed and didn't react to him at all. She just kept staring forward like she couldn't see him.
"Honey?" Ben said, giving the wolf a very light shake. Nothing. She just continued to staring forward, her face blank and emotionless. Her mouth was closed, and there was no smile or any other expression there at all either. Her eyes still remained wide.
"What's your name?" the bear then tried, hoping for a reaction. He didn't get one, and his expression only grew more and more concerned and worried.
"Who do you belong to?" he asked after a moment but there was still no change. Her face was blank, her eyes were wide and she made no response. Slowly, Ben Pawson lifted a paw and waved it in front of her face. The wolf pup didn't react at all. Her eyes didn't follow his paw, she didn't blink, her eyes didn't even twitch. Her nose also didn't so much as twitch at his scent. After a moment, Ben's face turned from worried and serious. Something serious had no doubt happened to this poor girl. Gently, he lifted the young wolf up into his arms and carried her back to the patrol car, holding her the same way she was holding her doll, very tenderly on the arm, even as the patrol plane came flying back again after doing its wider sweep of the area.
As it passed overhead, Ed, who was watching Ben as he walked back towards their car, heard Johnny's voice coming through the radio again. He turned and leaned into the car, pulling the door open and grabbing the microphone.
"301A to car 5W. Code 1," Johnny said.
"Car 5W to 301A, go ahead Johnny," Ed answered. The response over the radio came through very muffled and quiet, all Ed caught was something about a camper and that they had better check something. He fiddled with the radio a bit and then said, "10-9, Johnny."
"I said there's a camper about three miles ahead of you pulled off to the side of the road. I didn't see anyone around it, you better check it out. 10-10," Johnny said over the radio again. Ed nodded, "Okay Johnny, 10-10," he confirmed and placed the microphone back on its mount on the dash as Ben reached the vehicle and came to the passenger side door. He opened it and gently sat the little wolf pup down in the passenger seat, getting her out of the sun and into the shade. The inside was still cool thanks to the AC the two officers had been running while searching.
However she still didn't react.
"What's the matter with her? Heat stroke?" Ed asked. Ben shook his large head, "There's no sign of heat related illness, she's not even panting. With all that thick fur she can't have been out here in the sun very long." It was still early, only a little after ten in the morning, but the sun was already hot and sand was already hot under the paw. Even with Pawson's thick work boots on, he could feel the heat from the sand under them. He couldn't imagine how it felt on the little wolf's poor bare paws. Out here the sand got so hot that most animals opted to wear some kind of shoe or other covering on their paws, not all but many did. Even in Zootopia the sand was never this hot in Sahara Square, Ben knew because he had been there once on a temporary work detail to the Sahara Square police precinct. He had seen there that most mammals went bare pawed, a bit of an alien thing to him having grown up and lived his whole life in an actual desert and not an artificial one. This poor pup however had been wandering around out there with bare paws on sand hot enough to sometimes cause serious burns.
The brown bear paused as he examined the wolf pup's face, then slowly added, "Looks like she's in shock." Ed glanced up at Ben for a moment then examined the young wolf's face, "Yeah,'' he agreed. She was sitting in the passenger seat, just staring ahead, her eyes were wide as dinner plates and she hadn't blinked once.
"Mm-hmm," Ed said after a moment, licking his sharp teeth contemplatively. "Say, uh, Johnny spotted a camper up ahead. Maybe she's from there."
"Yeah, maybe so," the larger officer agreed. After another moment, the brown bear squeezed back into the patrol cruiser and eased into his seat, making sure the wolf had enough room that she wasn't squished. Ed jumped back into the driver's seat as Ben sat in his seat and pulled the passenger door closed. The lycaon started the car engine up again and the cruiser roared back to life. Without wasting any time, he pressed the gas pedal down and the car took off down the road leaving a dust cloud in its wake. Ben gently put one of his large arms around the wolf gently and held her with tender care.
Neither officer spoke as they drove down the road, both had questions that they were mulling over in their heads. Between them, still silent, and not blinking, the wolf pup kept staring forward for a while, but then she slowly seemed to melt into Ben's side a bit. She relaxed ever so slightly, her eyes slowly began to flutter and then slowly started to slip closed. She fully drifted off to sleep as they finally arrived at the camper trailer. It was a large camper trailer, probably some thirty feet long easily, if not even more. A very expensive brand too. It was pulled off the right side of the road, not in a campsite or anything, just a spot someone had parked it. Animals sometimes made their own roadside campsites, especially out here where they weren't likely to run into anyone, so on its own this was nothing unusual. The side of the trailer with the door was parked facing away from the road, and parked next to the camper was a car. A heavy duty one which could haul a trailer like that. Its trunk was open and the back, which was facing into the campsite, was empty, and it was a large enough SUV type car to hold a big family. That made sense, wolf families tended to have two or three cubs all the time on average, oftentimes even more. If the girl was from here, this was the kind of car her family would probably drive. Heck she probably wouldn't be an only child either, that was exceptionally rare in wolf families. Three tended to be the average number of pups in most families, the SUV was perfect for a family of wolves that size.
Ed parked the cruiser in front of the other car and shut the engine off. He looked over and saw Ben already raising the arm he had around the wolf pup and starting to ease up out of his seat. Ed held a paw up, "Hey, no use waking her up unless someone here can identify her. I'll check it," the lycaon offered. He gave Ben a small smile as unbuckled his belt, opened the door and climbed out of the cruiser instead. Quietly closing the door behind him, he readjusted his hat as he stepped away from the police cruiser and took a moment to inspect the car. The car had a Zootopia license plate on it.
"Well, that matches the girl's shirt," he thought as he looked at it for a moment. Not that he expected to find anything suspicious, just to have a look. Off a public road in plain view, he technically didn't have to worry about the right to privacy like he would at a private residence, out here it was fair game to have a look if it was plain view. There was nothing in the car, save one thing that caught his eye. Lying on the dash in front of the steering wheel was a police officer badge, a ZPD officer's badge. Just the badge, no name plate or anything like that anywhere to be seen. He made a mental note of it before he finally walked past the car. He passed around it on the passenger side and went to the side of the camper opposite of where they parked, where the door would be, and stopped as he got around to the side.
Ben frowned as he watched his fellow officer stop dead in tracks. For a moment Ed just stood there, his fluffy tail slowly swinging behind him, his eyes slightly wide, before he waved to Ben to come and have a look. The expression on his face told Ben that what he had found was deathly serious. Gently, he eased the little wolf pup down onto the seat, cradling her like she was his own cub, thankful that she didn't wake up as he did, and quietly opened the door and climbed out of the cruiser without making a sound. An impressive feat for an animal of his large bulky size. He left the door cracked half open so air could get into the car and hurried around the camper to join his partner.
"What is it?" he asked as he approached, though he still couldn't see around the camper.
"Take a look," Ed answered. Ben reached him and came around to the side of the camper to stand with his fellow officer, and as he did he also saw what Ed had and instantly knew why he had looked so alarmed by what he had seen.
They had just stumbled into something far more serious, and baffling, than they could have ever guessed.
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